Halo: Darkness Before Dawn
by MDAM-FASEGold
Summary: After drifting towards UNSC controlled space for over 25 years, the Spirit of Fire picks up a distress signal on UNSC frequency, the Forward Unto Dawn.
1. Connection

**MDAM- New story for you guys, this will be released when I have a new chapter available, between school (preliminary exams coming up), two other stories and my social life I'll attempt to release this every two weeks (no promises), Hope you enjoy. MDAM out.**

C1: Connection

_**2019 hours, 21 July 2557 (Military Calendar) / Position Unknown (Outside UNSC controlled space), UNSC Spirit of Fire, Bridge.**_

A loud ping resonated around the empty bridge.

A light blinked on as the Spirit of Fires Dumb AI 'Blacksmith' acknowledged an incoming broadcast. The smart AIs subroutines began to "revive" Serina, from her standby mode, the reason behind this was to slow her rampancy to a near stall, but it was unknown how she faired after 26 years of sleep. Blacksmith had an avatar of a tall muscular wearing a leather gloves and apron with the UNSC logo on it, it had a sooty tanned skin and short black hair. As he got Serina online he began to analyse the signal, it was on a UNSC frequency and was currently about eight and a half light minuets from the centre of a local solar system about two light seconds from the closest planet. He began to clean up the signal, hoping that the damage from energy burst seven years a go didn't damage the sensors too much.

Then he got a relatively clear signal. "_Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is UNSC FFG-201 Forward Unto Dawn, requesting immediate evac. Survivors aboard. Prioritization code: Victor Zero Five dash Three dash Sierra Zero One One Seven" _It read. Well he didn't expect that. Another Spartan lost in space and only within a light year of each other.

"_Revive process complete." _His subroutine announced.

The two avatars appeared on the bridge, each appearing in a holotank. "Good evening Serina, I have sent you a data cache containing the relative information." Blacksmith announced.

"Thank you Smith." She said, in a sarcastic manner. "Most intriguing. I'll progress to opening the Cyro-chambers."

"I'm well ahead of you." He said with a smirk on his face. "Passing over all ship diagnostics and restrained control."

"Restrained, come on Smithy, why not full." She said giving him a puppy eye appeal. Obviously testing her research into human relations."

"You older then any UNSC smart AI, you're twenty seven. Now go downstairs and greet the captain like a responsible adult." He smirked. His study of the crews' brain patterns over the past 26 years had allowed him to boost his Ai smart level to a _Mediocre AI; _more advanced then any Dumb AI but still not reaching the apex of a Smart AI. In that time he had developed pseudo-emotional sates as he kept upgrading his crystal matrix. He monitored Serina as she greeted the Captain.

"Captain wake up. Something has happened." She said.

"A good morning would be nice next time Serina." He groaned before regurgitating his nutrient fluid before struggling it down his throat. "Anyway what is the situation?"

"First it's the evening." _Still acting like herself._ Smith noted. "Secondly we have found some UNSC ship."

"We found the UNSC." He gasped, nearly throwing up the rancid gloop he just ingested.

"Its not that simple sir." _It never is_. Captain Cutter thought. "We found a UNSC ship yes, but by the readings we are getting from the sensors, it seem like this _half_ ship has no power and a broken FTL drive, but that's the bad news."

"I've had worse, and the good news." He queried.

"Like we will have another Spartan on board. Alice, Jerome and Douglas will be pleased." Serina said. "Also Smith has opened their cryo-chambers to deal with some stowaway flood. Oh and sir, we are heading straight for a planet."

_**2025 hours, 21 July 2557 (Military Calendar) / Position Unknown (Outside UNSC space), UNSC Forward unto Dawn, Cryo-room.**_

"UNSC Spirit of Fire CFV-88 to UNSC Forward Unto Dawn FFG-201, do you copy?" Said an English voice.

Cortana snapped out of her train of thought, confused to the sudden outside input. _The last time I checked rampancy doesn't cause hallucination._

"This is Smart AI Serina, do you copy?" The voice continued.

Cortana quickly opened a channel putting the last of the Deuterium and Tritium fuel into the reactor in an attempt to boost the signal. She opened a channel onto the E-band and said. "This better not be a joke or I will, for the love of god, or I will personally get this Spartan to rip your matrix from your pretty computer system."

"Hello to you too then, but this is no joke this is the UNSC Spirit of Fire, are you in need of a rescue."

Cortana was taken aback, a MIA ship was rescuing her. She turned to John and began to wake him up. There was a hiss and the chamber where he slept began to defrost, then he was awake. He pushed his hands against the glass in a moment of panic.

"Cortana, what's happening, has the UNSC found us."

"Sort of." She smiled, bringing up a rear camera only to show a Phoenix class support cruiser come straight before them. "I'm prepping a Pelican for take off."

"Is that The…"

"Spirit of Fire, yes, it is Chief, trust me it is a lot harder for me to comprehend as an AI then you, now get going, or we are going to crash into that planet."

"Actually, we have lost a lot of power, you know being stuck in space for the better part of thirty years, the good news is that we can land if it comes to that, or crash, same thing right." Serina quickly informed.

"Doug, Alice and Jerome…" The Chief said aloud. He snapped out of his trance and became focused. "Pelican, could you waypoint it."

"Sure" Cortana said as John picked up his BR55 and his Magnum, yanked out Cortana and ran down to the hanger. He ran down to the hanger were a fully stocked pelican was loaded. He opened the cargo door and ran to the controls. "Hanger doors opening. Pre-flight diagnostics are green across the board apart from the late servicing by around six year." She jested as the VTOL left ground and headed towards the missing ship.

"Permission to come aboard." The chief asked.

"Sure thing John, what brings you to this neck of the woods?" Said Douglas as he fired a magazine of his assault rifle. "We currently have a bit of a pest problem, we would have cleaned up if we knew we had guests coming." It wasn't normal for a Spartan to be so giddy and sarcastic, but yet again they weren't in normal circumstances.

"Pest problem?" John queried.

"Oh, that would be the Flood sir, small critters that take over your body and use…" he started.

"We know what the Flood is Petty Officer, I have met them on more than one occasion." He said parking the Pelican into the port hanger. He grabbed a Shotgun. _Looks like we will need this. _He thought as he pushed the cargo door button. Cortana had marked where the three other Spartans where fighting and the Chief began to sprint to their position. He turned a corner and saw the three Spartans fighting a wave of infection forms. Serina updated their FF tags and he too aimed down his shotgun and fired. In front of the four soldiers was a sea of green and sickly yellow as the Spartans cleared up the flood.

They all stepped forward in unison, slowly taking more ground from the invasive Flood, Alice had a pair of SMG's, Douglas had a shotgun and Jerome had a Machine turret. They where shooting anything that moved, infected grunts, jackals and humans, with the small infection forms waddling around their shins, but each one got a piece of metal lodged in them or through them, turning them into paste.

Serina piped up, "That's all of them, now Smithy would you please hand over control to the ship."

"Serina, for the millionth time, NO, you may be going through rampancy."

Then it hit John like a ton of bricks. Cortana. "Cortana, how old are you?"

"Why John"

"Just give me answer Cortana."

"Eight years ago."

"That means…"

"Rampancy, yes I know John, I'm sorry."

"All we need to do I get back to Halsey."

"John, I…"

"Erm, am I interrupting anything, because it may be a good idea if you all came to the bridge."

_**2105 hours, 21 July 2557 (Military Calendar) / Position Unknown (Outside UNSC controlled space), UNSC Spirit of Fire, Bridge.**_

"How the hell did you miss a Forerunner planet?" Ellen Anders shouted at Serina.

"I wouldn't have this problem is Shitty over here gave me access to the sensors. Which he didn't." she said jabbing her thumb behind her toward the hologram of Smith.

"Don't go looking at me, I did what protocol dictated." He said defensively.

"Oh yeah, because making yourself a semi-smart AI based off the crews brain readings is totally up there with protocol." Serina replied.

Ellen turned to the Smith with one eyebrow raised. "You did what. And for the record that isn't against protocol as you are the first dumb AI to do that."

"I prefer mediocre or average AI thank you, as you can see I am not an idiot." He said with even more defence.

"Permission to come on to the bridge sir." They heard, all three in the argument turned towards the door to see all four Spartans standing at attention, the newest addition saluting.

"Permission granted Spartans."

Smithy piped up. "How long were you standing there for?" he queried.

"Long enough." Piped the disembodied voice of Cortana.

The tree looked at each other and Ellen turned to leave, obviously not wanting to be embarrassed. Unfortunately Smith and Serina had to be present on the bridge so they just decide to do the next best thing, which was to deactivate the holotank.

"So that happened." Cortana spoke.

"Trust me this day couldn't get any weirder." He replied. Just as he spoke those words the alarms blared on the bridge. And a fleet of Covenant ships jumped out of slipspace. "Seems like I spoke too soon."

Then the planet opened, reviling a blue opening. The captain muttered to himself. "Here we go again." And the ship began to descend into the planet


	2. Old Friends and Enemies

**MDAM- Hey guys, so I managed to squeeze a small amount of time during revising to get this chapter out, hope you enjoy.**

C2: Old Friends and Enemies

_**2125 hours, 21 July 2557 (Military Calendar) / Position Unknown (Outside UNSC controlled space), Forerunner Planet, UNSC Spirit of Fire, Observation Deck**_

"So we are heading towards a forerunner planet, what could go wrong?" said Ellen rhetorically.

"Given our track record, we have around a 99.9% chance of dying." Serina said in her usual sarcastic manner. "That would be over a million times better than our previous chances of the fleet shield world."

"I just didn't thinks that I would be waking up to another one of these." She sighed.

"Look on the bright side Miss Anders, looks like Douglas, Alice and Jerome will be getting some new gear, skipping Mark V MJOLNIR armour straight onto Mark VI. You may find Halsey an ass, but you have to admit, she is good at what she does."

_That woman, such a bi… _Ellen suddenly lost concentration as large beam of energy swept the room. "That can't be good." She said.

Then Cortana broke in. "High intensity scan, doesn't match any known patterns." Cortana had been inserted into the computer systems as Serina went under a diagnostic for rampancy. "All hands to battle stations, we have multiple slipspace ruptures, sensors correlate ruptures to Covenant ships."

Ellen looked below her feet, she didn't see a couple of ships, no, she saw an entire armada. "Said it wouldn't be good. Cortana, prep an elevator for the bridge level." Ellen said, grabbing her lab coat as she exited the room. "Serina, could you finish preparation for armour creation."

"No problem." Ellen had requested that Serina should still be useful whilst undergoing diagnostic scans, so she had for the last twenty minuets been using her as a lab assistant. They in such a short period of time been able to get all the parameters of the MJOLNIR Mark VI armour and started preparing for three more sets for Alice, Douglas and Jerome.

Ellen got in the elevator and made her way up to the bridge level, she felt the inertia as the lift moved quickly upwards, there was a shudder as the ship was hit, but in a matter of seconds the doors opened and the bridge was revealed. Inside were four tall figures flanking the Captain, each of them easily recognisable, the four Spartan-II's. The Captain turned. "Professor, I thought you'd come and watch the fireworks." He said. "Cortana here can only do so much, but she can work miracles with it."

"Thank you Captain." She said, evidently not paying him much mind, but concentrating on keeping the crew alive. The Captain was fine with that, so long as the ship would live to see another day. Then there was a flash of blue light, and then a shudder, finally Cortana spoke. "Captain, I hope you are fine with going inside the planet."

He sighed. "Well its not the first time." He grabbed the main ship communicator and spoke. "This is Captain Cutter, all hands, brace for impact."

Ellen spoke. "Please say there is some good news Cortana."

"Well, a good portion of the Covenant fleet is going to be destroyed by the gravity well."

Then John spoke. "And the bad news?"

Cortana's avatar turned to the Spartan. "You know me so well John." She smirked. _She reminds me so much of Halsey, smiling in the height of danger. _Ellen thought. "We are going to be sucked in too, along with a ton of debris and still intact warships."

"So it's going to be a bit bumpy." John added

She replied. "That is a severe under statement.

_**2140 hours, 21 July 2557 (Military Calendar) / Position Unknown (Outside UNSC controlled space), Inside Forerunner Planet, UNSC Spirit of Fire, Bridge**_

"PULL UP CORTANA." Yelled the Captain.

Her Avatar stared right back at him. "YOU DON'T THNK I AM TRYING SIR" Evidently annoyed with the obvious statement. The ship jolted upwards, the inertia stressed the ship as the sudden change in velocity made the relatively ancient structure creak under the G-forces, the captain was surprised that no one on the bridge had fainted. But in a matter of seconds the ship steadied itself into a normal horizontal flight path. "There we go, captain, she is all yours." Cortana said after calming down. "Scans indicate that atmosphere is perfect for breathing, no traces viruses or other containments, I have already chosen a relatively good area for resource collection and supplies for the Spirit. If wee need to, we have nine out of ten Heron Firebase Pods, so we can set up a temporary ground base."

"That won't be needed, Cortana" said the captain, his head still spinning from the entry. "How many Covenant ships made it through the roof?"

"Two super cruisers, and a small fleet of corvettes, frigates, cruisers and carriers."

Douglas spoke up. "Looks like another day in the office."

Then Ellen realised, _THE ARMOUR._ She turned about and ran to the elevator and made her way down. Cortana smirked at this, but then something pinged on FLEETCOM. _That is impossible, only the UNSC has access to those frequencies._ "Sir you will want to see this." She produced a volume metric display showing the data.

"Clear the bridge." He shouted and the crew obliged. He looked at the data. "FLEETCOM, that's impossible. Are you able to source the signal?"

"No for that I would require a cartographer. This facilities map room."

"I see. I'll send a fire team."

"Already got one sir." She swiped him a list.

He frowned. "All four of them. What if there is a trap?"

She smiled then they are the best ones to get out of it.

_**0900 hours, 22 July 2557 (Military Calendar) / Position Unknown (Outside UNSC controlled space), Forerunner Planet, Pelican en route to cartographer**_

"ETA two mikes." Shouted the Pilot.

"Copy that Foehammer Bravo." John said.

"Just like old time huh." Cortana said.

"Just that this time I fighting with people I know will get the job done." He said, obviously describing the three mammoth super soldiers in the rear compartment of the Pelican.

"How modest." Cortana jabbed.

"How honest." He corrected. He changed his channel to TEAMCOM. "All prepped?" They all replied with green flashes on his HUD. They were all wearing their new Mark VI armour that Professor Anders made, the fact that she made three sets in under twenty four hours impressed both John and Cortana, not only that, she upgraded the armour to iron out some of Halsey's errors, to put it bluntly she was a genius. John had been unofficially transferred to Fireteam Red for the time being. Douglas sported a shotgun, Alice an assault rifle and Jerome a DMR. John stuck with the Battle Rifle he took off the Dawn. They all carried a magnum for a side arm along with a multitude of grenades.

"ETA one mike."

"Copy" John said. He had been promoted to Red Actual, though to his surprise Jerome took it well, probably due to John fighting for twenty more years than the rest of the team. "Okay, the job is simple, we get down, get to the cartographer, get the relevant information, and then request orders once information is required. Note; kill anything that prevents the extraction of that information. Copy?" They all respond to the message with a green flash. Then they all stood up, facing the rear hatch as the pilot opened it. Outside was a forerunner structure, it coloured silver with blue highlights, and it was built into the side of a gorge. But what caught the eyes of the Spartans was the number of covenant troops.

They jumped out the back of the pelican and landed on the soft green carboniferous soil, leaving deep boot marks in the dirt. "Red one, you take the right flank, give us covering fire." He gestured Jerome to an outcropping that overlooked the area. "Red two and three, you take point, I'll take the left flank." They all replied with green flashes, he replied with three shot flashes and then a long one to indicate operation execution.

Jerome snuck around, keeping to the shadows. He came up to two grunts and quickly stuck his knife into the methane tank, ripping it out and plunging it into the throat of the other; he picked up a plasma pistol and holstered it onto his side. Once he made to the top of the outcrop he took some fibre sting an made an improvised trip mine with a grenade before lying down and prepping his DMR, ready to strike all those who went in the way of red team.

Alice and Douglas went through a small crevasse, Douglas taking point with his shotgun ready to take any fool stupid enough to take on a Spartan. Alice held her assault rifle high, ready to take anyone who dared to attack from above. She spoke up, "Actual this is two, in position, waiting for your mark." John replied with a flash.

He was in position around a couple of rocks over looking a group of grunts; in his hand was a frag grenade, all ready for detonation. "Execute." he said, as he threw the tennis ball sized device into the group of eight grunts, disintegrating them into chunks of cyan blue and orange as the methane exploded. He noticed a couple of jackals go down as the bullets of Jerome's DMR entered their skulls and exiting the other side producing a spectacular display of purple blood painted the limestone rocks, dematerialising the head into a fine mist. Alice opened fire into an elite, dropping the shields with a fantastic golden burst of light, only to have Douglas produce red mince meat as the aliens innards, creating a Jackson Pollock painting on the silver walls of the forerunner structure.

Another elite attempted to hit Douglas, only to have him duck and produce a textbook upper cut to its may jaws, breaking its shields as it hit the floor, the super soldier then proceeded to crush the disabled monsters head with his metal boot, leaving a well detailed imprint of his boot grips. Alice emptied her clip and during her reload she came across a jackal that was pointing a beam rifle towards the Spartans face, big mistake. She dove to the side grabbing the empty magazine, smashing it against a rock, shattering the metal into a serrated edge only to have it placed into the jackals face at high speeds, and nailed in with a quick punch to the face. John made his way up the left ramp, picking up a plasma grenade on the way, igniting it and stuck it into the face of an elite ranger. The ranger made an attempt to remove the explosive device only to have its own hand stuck to its face, then it exploded. A wave of blue lit up the area, taking out two grunts along with it. "Nicely done John." Cortana said

"Like you thought I wouldn't have." He said sarcastically

"Of course not." She said as he made his way along the first floor to the second ramp to the top, sticking his Titanium-A combat knife into a charging, energy sword wielding, elites jugular. Ending its life for good. "But you are being a bit sloppy." She joked as john turned the corner to see Alice and Douglas, they could behind the two Spartan the last member of the team jog up behind them. They all formed a line and started walking up to the second floor, with the entrance to the forerunner cartographer, they all reloaded their weapons and cocked back the handle, they all proceeded to aim up, and they shot at a large crowd of grunts, elites, jackals and two hunters. Cortana spoke over TEAMCOM "Looks like another day in the office."


	3. Cartographer

**MDAM - I managed to fill some holes in my revision timetable, brand new chapter for you. I am pleasantly surprised by the number of people who have followed, made this a favourite and have made reviews for this story (Considering its in the back seat at the moment). I shall input a couple of review answers at the end for you guys. I hope you enjoy the new chapter of what, even with the delay, is the most popular stories by me. MDAM out**

C3: Cartographer

_**0900 hours, 22 July 2557 (Military Calendar) / Position Unknown (Outside UNSC controlled space), Forerunner Planet, Gate to cartographer**_

Douglas took out the shotgun he had on his back and chambered a round. The small red plastic casing of an eight gauge round flew out as the new one entered. The muzzle of the Spartans new weapon stuck in the back of a Hunter, the trigger was pulled, activating a small mechanism operated a small hammer that struck the new round, creating a spark that ignited the gunpowder within the cartridge, this ignition caused a chain reaction as each grain of carbon, sulphur and saltpetre added to the ever chaotic reaction. A reaction that results in a small shockwave, firing small pellets of metal through the front of the casing, the bullets massive acceleration sent each ball at around one hundred meters a second out of the barrel and into the soft flesh of the worms that made up the Hunter.

A smell of plastic clung into the air, as the orange liquid erupted from the inside of the creature, bringing it to its knees. Douglas spoke up. "Hunter down." He chambered another round and pointed it in the direction of the face of an Elite, he pulled the trigger again and purple blood fountained out, covering a screaming grunt who had two cobalt blue plasma grenades primed to explode, only to be cut short as the three shots from Jerome's DMR silenced the creature.

John and Alice fought another Hunter, John acting as bait as Alice unloaded her mag into the back of the hunter. Cortana spoke to John as a Hunter went to swing at him. "Remember there are two of us in here." She smirked, John looked to his left, pulled out his pistol and shot a Grunt that go to close in the head. He looked back as saw the Hunter swinging its gun arm at him; he ducked only to have the creature to start falling on him. Immediately he lunged back to wards an unsuspecting Grunt an landed on it, the weight of a one ton Spartan crushed the little creature, its florescent blood spilling over the surface like a Rorschach diagram.

Jerome started to pick off the stragglers, Alice took part too, spraying her clips into the remnants of the backs of the Grunts and Jackals, all of them falling onto the floor and dying, a few coughing up blood before withering and dying. John walked over to a panel and pressed the switch, opening the large metal construct. "John, look on the floor there." Cortana said as he highlighted a small water bottle sized device, John picked it up. "It looks like a sort of invisibility device. I am creating a soft patch." Then a small icon appeared by his motion sensor as he stuck the device on his back. "Uploading files to other Spartan counterparts."

He looked to his left and to his right, then signalling the team through. Alice spoke. "I don't like this place, reminds me to much of the shield world." The door behind them closes, and in an air lock like manner opened the other in a manner of seconds.

They came into a large metal room with large geometric supports with artesian looking symmetry. The room was filled with cyan blue light that reflected beautifully off the metal and lit up the layers of sand that had hid itself in the corners. The room was also dotted with the organic looking purple weapon crates filled with weapons. The four Spartans crouched. Alice and Douglas quickly grabbed a plasma carbine each after holstering their main weapons, they all got into a line and began to pick off some Grunts and Elites with Jerome with his DMR, elegantly getting head shots.

John on the other hand began to sneak around the corners and outcrops, inside metallic ditches and behind barriers that had been around for thousands of years. He pulled out his knife and hopped and jumped from cover to cover, quickly grabbing every unsuspecting Covenant troop from the light in t the shadows for the structure, be that a Grunt, Elite or Jackal, all of which were distracted by the slaughter provided by the rest of red team. The Covenant slowly got picked off; one by one they were destroyed as they witnessed the wrath of red team. Once the large room had been cleared of the enemies they walked up to the back of the room. "Chief the console, care to plug me in?" she asked, and within seconds she was inside the console.

"What did you find?" John asked.

"This is a localised cartographer unfortunately, though this is interesting." Her avatar had a couple of windows open. "Looks like we are on shield world designate 'Requiem'".

"At least we know were we are."

"Now to see what the Covies are so interested in." She said, suddenly the console ejected her chip and a red error appeared. "Well that happened, how odd, I would advise to check out the two power fluctuations to the sides of the room."

John put the chip back into his helmet. "Alice you are with me. Douglas and Jerome check the left room, we will check the right." They all nodded as a reply. And they went on their way, creeping around corners Alice and John held their weapons high. There were a couple of sentinels overhead, the insect like drones not making much in the way of notice to the four reclaimers wondering the ancient halls. They wondered up the incline until they came across a floating button. Interrupted the path that John and Alice were on, the path that came to a massive circular abyss with a single solitude beam of sunset orange energy in the centre.

John pressed the button and a blue hard light bridge formed, one the two Spartans crossed. With once they crossed. John pressed the other switch on a circular hard light platform. To both Alice's and John's surprise their shields dropped. The radio crackled to reveal Douglas. "John, Alice, did your shield just stop working?"

"Yes." John responded before turning the conversation to Cortana. "What is going on?"

"Seems like these beams are a ferroelectric data stream, how interesting, it also seems to cycle with your suit shielding, don't worry Spartans, this will dissipate soon."

Douglas continued. "Copy that Cortana, Red three out."

They got back to the console and Cortana was put back into the system again. "Odd, there seems to be some kind of transmission. Attempting to clear up."

"This is… of… _Infinity…_" Then it cut out.

"That was English, that means UNSC." John said.

Then Jerome questioned. "Does the Spirit have long ranged broadcast capabilities?"

"I am afraid not." Cortana said solemnly. "They were initially damaged by the events at your Shield World and the energy burst a couple years back, sorry about the latter, and completely disabled after entry into Requiem."

"Can this place get a decent transmission?" John asked, Cortana simply shook her holographic head.

"I could try and get a direct LASCOM signal if I triangulate its position." She said getting information from the Forerunner databanks; the sphere above showed a multitude of pings around the surface. "If the Infinity wasn't everywhere. There is simply too much… Oh" The screen quickly changed to a single point in the centre of the sphere. "Or in the centre of the planet."

"That can't be right, scan again."

"We've already passed through one layer of the planet surface, it's not crazy to think that someone else is deeper inside than we did."

"You mean the planet is hollow?"

"Let me see if I can figure out a way to reach these coordinates that doesn't involve us digging a really big hole." She responded, gaining a chuckle from Douglas. A couple of seconds later her avatar dimmed and John collected her. She highlighted a door that the four Spartans made their way to.

It opened to a large limestone gorge with a long, sword like bridge extending from the front to the back, the area was crawling with Covenant, with troops, ammunition depots and even three banshees patrolling their 'Holy Relics'. They scrambled to cover; they nodded at one another and three of them moved onto the platform, all except Jerome who was sniping with his DMR. The glass like hard light moved down with Alice crouching with her assault rifle, was standing with his recently acquired plasma carbine and Douglas stood read as he chambered another shell with a quick pump.

A Grunt who was asleep on guard duty was put to sleep silently as a knife was inserted into its throat; Alice removed it and slid it back into her sheath. There were multiple other invisibility devices, she threw one to Douglas and they both attached them to their backs and activated the devices. Slowly moving up the bridge they snapped, shived and stabbed every Grunt and Jackal in their way. John's device ran out of energy and the Covenant had been alerted. "Seems like stealth is no longer an option." He said taking put shots of a few Grunts, imagining their small heads exploding with confetti, he smirked a bit. He looked to his left and saw Douglas do a pushing kick to the chest of an Elite, making it fall into the abyss below.

Jerome was taking shot after shot, he had to change to a plasma carbine as his DMR had ran dry, he had next to him in series, five empty carbine cases of which only a few were wasted. His brutal efficiency was almost unparalleled between the Spartan-II's and even the rest of the UNSC, except from Linda or course.

John broke the silence. "So what do we know about _Infinity_?"

"Well from what information from the last time we were on Earth, she was supposed to be a massive ship, the flagship of the UNSC fleet, though she was only in prototype when we left." She responded.

John sprinted to some cover and threw a Plasma grenade at a group of fleeing Grunts. He noticed his Magnum was dry, he changed to his pistol and aimed it, held down the trigger into overcharge and released it into the back of an Elite, dropping its shield, followed by a blast of green energy to the head from the barrel of Jerome's carbine, killing it. The four on the ground slid into the cover of an overturned UNSC weapon rack.

"Nice" Douglas exclaimed, throwing his empty shotgun with force at an Elite before grabbing his new shotgun off the floor and firing the chambered round into the face of the dazed Elite, who's head was now noting more than an fine mist. Jerome had run to get closer to get a better shot when he noticed some Banshees.

"Covies have air support." He radioed.

"Copy that red one." John replied. He heaved up the rack and found what he was looking for, a SSR launcher. He crouched, and using the two times magnification zoom he aimed it towards the front of an incoming Banshee. Two rockets launched and hit their target head on. After quickly reloading he pointed it towards the last aircraft and again fired a salvo, the rockets hit their intended target with a bright flash and the carcass of the purple vehicle disappeared into the cavern. "Air secured." He said over TEAMCOM before dropping the empty weapon and picking up a battle rifle.

Alice and Douglas had cleared out the between the door and their cover until it was nothing but a field of bodies. The quartet made for the door when Cortana spoke. "The whole Covenant net is going crazy. They are ordering all units toward the tower."

John smirked. "Seems like we got their attention."

**LASCOM- Laser communication, this is when you use a laser to send information to a specific area almost instantly when you then use a program or Morse code to send information to a sensor that can translate this information.**

**MDAM- Hope you enjoyed this chapter, sorry for the long time between uploads, but better late than never. I don't think I will be able to upload another chapter this month and perhaps next month too, but who knows. If I have the time I will attempt to squeeze an extra chapter in, no promises. MDAM out.**


	4. The Gateway

**MDAM- I thought that since it is the holidays, I would try and give you an extra treat. Enjoy your chapter of Darkness Before Dawn**

C4: The Gateway

_**0915 hours, 22 July 2557 (Military Calendar) / Position Unknown (Outside UNSC controlled space), Forerunner Planet, Gate to the Terminus Tower**_

The four Spartans stepped into a small forerunner room. Douglas slid a couple new rounds into his shotgun, Alice and John reloaded their assault rifles and Jerome his new battle rifle. The one door closed and the other opened, the quartet cocked or chambered a new round in their respective weapons. They walked through a small corridor that was half rock half forerunner structure with red, lava like, energy flowing beneath their feet.

The four Spartans walked forward to the end of the corridor until they came to another door. The chrome metal hid itself in the wall automatically as it noticed the Spartans walking up to it, revealing a large open expanse of short grass and silver monoliths. The area was also dotted with UNSC and Covie equipment, along with multiple Covenant troops and two ghosts.

The Spartans activated their stealth kits and snuck out, the Covies not noticing the doors just randomly opening and closing. The Spartans moved to lest after coming out of the door, towards some 'acquired' UNSC hardware. They dropped their cloak and rummaged around the available equipment. Alice collected herself a SAW that she found lying on the floor, Douglas equipped himself with a rocket launcher. Douglas and John simply collected some more ammunition.

"I think it is time to get this show on the road." Cortana broadcasted. Four green lights blinked acknowledging and agreeing with the statement, and suddenly carnage ensued. Firstly Douglas kneelt down aiming his launcher at a Ghost, and launching a rocket at the unsuspecting driver, who didn't notice until it was too late. A palette of purple and orange emanated from the explosion as the unfortunate Grunt was carbonised. John had picked up a battle rifle and along with Jerome, began to unload a number of rounds into a group of screaming Grunts who were waving their plasma pistols in the air.

Alice had snuck around with the use of her cloak and the trio of Spartans acting as a sufficient distraction. Taking out a knife, she snuck behind an Elite who was firing at colleagues. Plunging it deep within its gullet and quickly swiping it around, the Elite slumped to the floor, lifeless, leaving Alice with a blade dripping with the florescent blood of her enemy. She again activated her cloak, and snuck up on a group of Grunts. Taking out a fragmentation grenade she threw lightly placed it amongst the oblivious soldiers. It detonated, firing the charred remains of her adversaries into the air.

By now her brothers in arms had caught up with her, Douglas had taken out another ghost with his launcher, which he now switched for dual magnums. John and Alice went up the left side of the forerunner construction and Douglas and Jerome the right. Alice and John took out a battle rifle each and began to pick out the Grunts and Jackals with headshots, though they were sticking to the shadows, the only thing illuminating them were the thin bands of cyan light that were emitted from the structure and the sunlight reflection off the silver surface. Otherwise they were in total darkness, this coupled with their cloaks, made them more or less invisible except the slight flash from their rifles as they fired.

Alice took out her SAW and crept up on the Elite, who noticed her at a last second as a barrage of forty-two bullets dropped the Elites shields and a further eight rounds killed it. Another of the Aliens turned around to shot, but this time John slit its throat, leaving it to gasp for air without avail. Instead it drowned in its blue-purple blood, until its eyes finally closed. Alice quickly reloaded her weapon as they made their way up to the next level. John quickly took out the attacking Jackals with a quick shot to the arm and then the head for the first two, and a then with the final three rounds in his magazine, fired a quick burst into the head of the Jackal ranger who was lining up a shot with its beam rifle at Alice.

The duo made their way up the rampart onto the next level were the covenant were fighting the sentinels, with little success to the Covies. Douglas and Jerome came up the other side with their weapons trained on a group of Elites in the centre platform, all four Spartans let out a torrent of automatic fire, in a matter of second there was nothing left but the mangle, hole ridden, corpses of two dead Elites. The Spartans split into their duos again and made up the two ramparts in the centre up onto the main entrance to the tower were two Hunters were fighting against the group of fourteen sentinels.

Douglas readied his shotgun and placed aimed it toward an area of exposed flesh of the Hunter and unloaded three round before the colony of worms swung around and hit Douglas with such speed, Douglas flee back into a wall, but he got up and chambered another round. However by then Jerome had finished the Hunter off with a well placed plasma grenade into the core of the Hunter, making it explode, sending a large amount of orange blood erupting onto the floor and into the air and walls.

"Kill steal." Douglas radioed to Jerome who simply shrugged as the Alice fired the last of her SAW ammunition into the Hunter, causing the Behemoth to fall face first into the floor. Throwing the gun to the side, she took out her battle rifle and quickly cocked the receiver. She gave a Spartan smile and the four made for the door.

They waltzed through the archway and entered a long corridor, on the sides were strange triangular struts that slowly moved away from the centre of the room when the Spartans got close, a few sentinels came out to greet them, but quickly flew away. The blue hue slowly turned orange as they approached a elevator, all the Spartans got on it began to move upwards, they got into defensive positions, two crouched two standing.

_Reminds me of the Library on Halo._ John thought to himself as the large platform moved upwards. They waited for a minuet until the platform came to a halt, the Spartans held their positions, not even flinching. Three lights blinked on Johns HUD, the broke formation and made for the large cavernous metal room with an unsettling blue colour to it. The Spartans scanned the area for hostiles, checking blind spots and their motions sensors regularly as they crossed the hard light bridge. Keeping a very close eye on the numerous pillars that dotted the area. They came up to the centre platform where the chief removed Cortana from his helmet.

"Well this is interesting."

* * *

_**0930 hours, 22 July 2557 (Military Calendar) / Position Unknown (Outside UNSC controlled space), Forerunner Planet, UNSC Spirit of Fire, Bridge**_

"We have finished cannibalising some of the systems, long range communications should be working both ways not just transmission." Senior Chief Petty Officer Andrew Prescott reported. "Starting up initial calibration and testing with Foehammer Bravo, she should be back any minuet. Permission to proceed sir."

"Granted."

"Thank you sir." The channel switched off.

James turned to the avatar of Smith. "How comes Serina's check up?"

"Currently at 98% sir. So far she has the all clear. However we are getting reports that some of the radios on our aircraft are picking up a phantom signal on the E-Band, I am currently putting my money on the remnants of the Dawns broadcast, but the signal doesn't match any know patterns, shall I look into it after communications have been completed and Serina has been green lit?"

"Proceed, and try pick out any information you can out of it."

"Aye aye sir." Smithy responded, along with a mock salute. _Do all AI have a odd sense of humour?_ The captain thought to himself, shaking his head in disbelief. But he liked the good news; it had been some time since they had been able to have access to long-range communication, the only reason they had been able to contact the Dawn was the fact that they were in close proximity and in line of sight of one another. A small green light illuminated on Cutters monitor, next to the letters: _**/: COM_LR :/**_. He pressed a button. "This is Spirit Actual to Foehammer Bravo do you copy?"

"I hear you loud and clear Spirit Actual. Tell Prescott he is lucky."

"May I ask why?"

"We had a, friendly bet sir"

"I see, Spirit Actual out." Cutter said, glancing over again at his monitor, _**/: SYSTEM_DIAGNOSTIC [SERINA]_STATUS=99%=10_SEC_REMAINING**_. The clock finally ticked over to zero and the system report popped up, _**[No Rampancy Detected]**_. "Looks like you have the all clear Serina."

"Told you." She huffed as her Avatar came to life in one of the holotanks. "Well at least you didn't kill yourself whilst I was gone. And you have got long range COM's back. Nice."

"See, flesh and blood humans can still do stuff without you pestering." Smithy stated.

"Ah, you wound me." She said, holding her hand over her heart in jest.

Cutter spoke up. "Don't you two have work to do?"

"Perhaps." Serina said.

"We do." Smithy said, obviously not having the patience for Serina's fooling. "We have a phantom signal to clear up."

"Oohh. How exiting and exotic." She said sarcastically.

"Serina." Both Smithy and Cutter said at the same time, before looking at each other and shaking their heads, before the two AI vanished. Cutter sat back. "Why did Cole give me Serina of all AI?" He muttered to himself before a message popped up on his monitor. _I heard that, Love Serina._ It read. AI indeed have a strange sense of humour.

* * *

**_0935 hours, 22 July 2557 (Military Calendar) / Position Unknown (Outside UNSC controlled space), Forerunner Planet, Terminus Tower_**

The platform around the four Spartans began to move, the structure looked like it was inspecting the holographic terminal, as if Cortana was a bacteria under a microscope. "It seems like this place is one of many terminus stations around the planet. But the interesting part is the fact that when I asked for the coordinated for Infinity, it came up with this. The forerunner symbol for Reclaimer."

"Humanity." The chief said.

"I will try and open a portal." Cortana said only to be interrupted by Douglas.

"Guys, cut the chit chat but I think something is happening." He said.

The chief turned about to find the pillars had started to move, and suddenly multiple humanoid beings began to suddenly materialise. But what really surprised the Spartans was the sudden appearance of a whirling portal. Cortana was dumbfounded. "How did…" she regained her train of thought. "Chief, yank me, we need to go now."

And like that, the four Spartans ran through the Portal.


	5. Layers, like and onion

**MDAM- Holy Crap. That's right, bitches, a new chapter is up for darkness before dawn. How long has it been? Eight months ago in the Easter break since I uploaded a chapter. Now since you lot have been waiting patiently, I have decided to actually sit down and concentrate on a new chapter for all you lot for Christmas (or at least the dregs found in the boxing day sales). Anyway you guys are sick of my shit. TO THE CHAPTER!** **MDAM out. o_o7**

C5: The Layers, Like an Onion

_**0936 hours, 22 July 2557 (Military Calendar) / Position Unknown (Outside UNSC controlled space), Forerunner Planet, Position Unknown**_

The four Spartans and an AI flew out of the portal and landed. Giving the area a once over, but they dropped their rifles, before them was a massive purple view, with two spires of light piecing from the surface into the core of the planet. "Another layer! How how many layers does this place have? What the hell is that?" Douglas asked.

For a start this is under the second layer there I guess you could say layer three is the satellite." She said, indulging him with answers to the questions like little children, but now that she thought of it, they were over two decades younger, biologically, than the chief. "That would be the jammer, for a lack of a better word, it must be interfering with the coms. We need to disable those two beams of light to access the main satellite core." Cortana said. "Then we tell the Infinity to stay well out of dodge of the gravity well. I am going to attempt to open a portal to the two sites and we go as separate teams. We'll take the left and you the right. Chief, can you plug me in." The Chief complied, suddenly the two swirling minor slipspace portals opened and each Spartan team jumped inside.

Alice and the Chief jumped into the portal, sliding into a purple and orange wasteland of crystalline rocks and data flows. The whole place looked overly artificial, but still seemed to have a natural element to it, it was uncanny. The Chief readied his battle rifle, quickly checking how much ammo he had left. _Two magazines_ _including the one loaded_. They reached a corner and looked over a small group of strange dog like machines with the same blue and steel colouration as the strange soldiers upstairs, most likely meaning they were hostile.

Crouched down, he steadied his rifle and spoke. "Alice you take the right, I'll take the left."

"Copy."

"Cortana, care to inform me why we aren't at the energy spire?"

"Well, I just got as close to the spire as I could without causing damage to my subroutines, these Foner firewalls are bitchy enough as they are, I had to open two at the same time, I could have got you closer if you let them go separately, but no time was of the essence! It always is for Spartans, never once thinking about us!" She said, her voice having a rampant fizzing towards the end of her sentence. John thought about telling her but decided against it in case she decided to take a hissy fit against him, now was clearly not the time.

Lining up a shot he pulled the trigger and plastered the orange goo like insides of this 'crawler' against the gulch wall, leaving a web like mark on the wall. Alice followed suit, shooting the head off the small canine creature. The loud noises altered the others; they turned around and located the two Spartans. They began shooting their orange projectiles towards them, running like wolves hunting their prey, and equally as savage. Keeping themselves calm, the two of them simply crouched a small wave of crawlers came closer and closer, taking headshots to conserve ammunition. One of the crawlers came around to his left. Quickly reacting, he grabbed the head and the body of the crawler and ripped it out of its socket. Its body dematerialised in front of him leaving a D-shaped weapon on the floor. He felt the weight of it in his hand for a second, aiming it down towards the crawlers and pulled the trigger, firing a small crystal like orange bullet, beam, shard thing. He had no idea what it was, but when it hit a crawler and damaged it, he didn't really care.

Alice was still crouched down; she quickly ejected her penultimate magazine and loaded her final. Not wanting to waste any more ammunition, she picked up two of the odd pistols and ran into the fray. She ran and jumped into and crumples the body of an unfortunate crawler. She began firing in quick succession into the any of them that got close. She was punched to the ground by something large and heavy, flipping herself around she came face to face with some tall, almost human, combat machine. Quickly she twisted her arm upwards to face the chest of machine. She had been holding down the trigger and a couple flaps on the side of the weapon flew open. She let go and a flurry of the little glowing shards flew out and fired into the heart of the large humanoid creature, like a little shotgun, flinging it back into a pile of rubble, she grabbed another pistol shotgun off the floor, holding down the trigger, raising it up and executing the machine. Her green visor hidden eyes lit up in some child like glee as she picked up another strange weapon, she held it in her hands and knew right there, Douglas would be very jealous. She had her hands on an alien shotgun.

"Someone seems happy." Cortana mused, as Alice jumped and pumped to shots into the chest of the humanoid creature, it tuning to what looked like digital embers. Running up to give assistance, he used picked up a long, silver and orange rifle grip weapon from the floor and rammed his body into one of the tall machines, tackling it to the floor, and firing the rifle into the chest of the combat AI. The AI suddenly disappeared in a light of blue. Startled, John rolled forward, his back against the wall, scanning the area for any resurgence of the machine. In the corner of his eye he saw a similar light flash. He ran out from his rock and towards the flash. What he saw was the machine producing some sort of hovering drone from its back. John decided to attack the humanoid over the drone, unloading the rest of the weapon into the chest of the machine, only to have it blocked by a blue hard light shield emitted by the drone. He took out his Battle rifle, and unloaded half a clip into it before it blew up with a satisfying _Clang_ as the two small disks that it used to hover fell to the floor.

The humanoid threw a small polygonal grenade towards John. He jumped back as the orange device hit the ground and quickly levitated four feet off the ground, creating a sphere of orange which nearly engulfed him in its odd energy field. Grabbing his combat knife he ran at the machine, jumping left and right as it attempted to shoot him with its high velocity rifle. He skirted to the machines left and got behind it, jumping onto its shoulders and planting the blade between spinal vertebras. He looked around for Alice, to find her with two Forerunner assault rifles held in each hand, mowing down all the small crawlers. He ran up and joined her, picking up the Forerunner HVR and mag locking it to his back. The whole area was saturated with crawlers. John scanned his HUD to find a frag and two plasma grenades. Reaching for his grenade belt, he flicked on the red safety and pulled the pin, throwing it into the rabble, taking out six of them.

The two Spartans jumped into the crowd, their Forerunner weapons blazing, unrelenting torrent blasting through all of the small robots armour. Johns clip ran out with his Forerunner rifle so he picked up a pistol from the ash covered ground, attaching it to his side before tackling a crawler to the ground and stabbing it in the skull with his knife. Alice used her augmented strength to pick up a crawler and smashed it into the ground with one hand while the other reached her side and pulled out her Forerunner pistol and used the shotgun feature against the face of crawler who thought it would be a great idea to attempt to jump a Spartan. She picked up a Forerunner rifle and began peppering the group in front of her. John removed a plasma grenade and attached it to the side of a crawler before kicking it towards a group of three coming towards them. It blue up in with a large ball of blue, purple, silver and orange as the four crawlers were engulfed in the ionized gas blast. The two of them snuck up to a ridge and looked over the side. What they saw surprised them.

There were Covenant and Forerunner AI fighting each other. An Elite was pinned to the wall by one of the Humanoid Forerunner AI; clearly squeezing the life from it's aloft body. But quickly it activated the plasma sword and stuck the two-pronged blade through the bulbous body, causing the Elite to fall to the floor. Face down, in front of the small, strange glowing star like object of orange light. Cortana chimed in John and Alice's ear. "I saw those things earlier on. They seem to be the AI matrix of the knights."

"Knights?" Alice asked.

"The big tall silver and orange human shaped robots with the drones that pops out their backs." The little window in the top right of her screen enlarged slightly, her face amused and sly. "What! I did some rummaging through the systems, looking at all the information I could find." John raised an eyebrow and a smirk. "What don't give me that look, I am an AI, and I love information. It's what I do!"

"I never said anything."

"But remember when I am in your head, you can't hide jack from me." She said smiling. But their eyes turned back to the fight below. John removed his Forerunner HVR from his back and aimed it at the head of an elite. He fired; an orange bolt flew and impacted the faceplate of the Elite, causing it to stumble back before it quickly disintegrated into ash. He looked over the field and found a Knight standing with a drone giving shield support, but the knight was exposed from behind. A behind facing towards a sniper wielding Spartan. He fired the orange bolt before tossing the weapon the side. It penetrated the armour and the machine fell to the ground in a flurry of embers.

Alice slid down the rock embankment; she quickly glanced up to see how far they were from the spire. _Just over the ridge_. She thought, as rocked forward and jumped tackling a grunt to the floor, and in two quick movements, removed her combat knife and ruptured its methane tank, causing it to go flying off and detonating as it a rock outcropping. She gracefully glided over some bodies of fallen covenant; footprints left on the body of one, now unidentifiable, elite. Out the corner of her eye she saw the drone do something to the knights body. It rose up from the dead, suddenly materialising, right behind John who was having some fun shooting up some crawlers. She quickly ran up behind the machine screaming down the microphone. "John! Behind You!" He was turning around. Spartan time had kicked in, as every thing seemed to slow down. Alice jumped into the air, her Forerunner shotgun ready to fire. She did a double foot drop kick against the machine. She placed the barrel against the head of the Knight and kicked off as she fired the weapon, causing the machine to crumple to the floor. Grabbing her Forerunner pistol, she held and released it on the drone. "You owe me." She said, tracing her finger to form a Spartan smile on her visor.

"Show off." John smiled back. _It feels good to be back with family_. He thought as the looked over the lip vf the ridge, seeing the large spire ahead.


	6. Contact Infinity

**MDAM- It is Easter, so lets crack open the chocolate eggs, and some covenant skulls. I know this story isn't being uploaded as much as people like it too (since this has more favourites and follows than any other story of mine), but still this is on the back burner (for about ten more weeks at least). I would make this a fortnightly update, but doing so greatly reduces chapter quality (just read some of the earlier chapters of the Reach Prologue chapters until six months ago and my Stargate stuff). So happy Easter and enjoy the one year anniversary of this story (errr… that is really bad. Shit. Maybe I should start actually writing the chapter…). Enjoy… MDAM out. o_o7**

C6: Contact Infinity

"Jerome, duck." Shouted Douglas, and just as quickly, the red trimmed armour dropped to the ground as a shotgun fired overhead, mauling the corpse of the elite attempting to pierce the Spartan with its energy blade. He immediately gained his senses and sprung forth, digging his blade deep within the skull of a grunt, its lifeless corpse falling to the purple stone floor.

"Cheers Doug." He said, firing a short burst from his rifle into a flanking jackal. "Elite six o'clock." Douglas swung around, shooting a large chunk out of the side of the elite as it came around with a storm rifle. The two of them moved into cover. "Go over, I will keep you covered with battle rifle fire."

"Copy." Said quickly reloading his shotgun and hopping over the metal barricade, as a torrent of three burst fire rounds kept covenant supporting fire suppressed. He barged shoulder first into an elite, digging his heel into its throat as he landed, gun up as another elite made around and tried to shoot him. He quickly holstered his weapon and grabbed the elites, causing its hands to move down the rifle. He then forced the trigger down and over heated the rifle, causing the elite to roar in pain as the escaping gasses burnt its hand. Using the distraction to his advantage, the Spartan kicked the side of the elite, crunching bones in the process as well as knocking the elite down to the ground. The weapon now sufficiently cool, the Spartan fired the rifle into the split-lips face, turning it into a black, grey and blue mess of charred flesh and blood. He glanced at his motion sensor and saw a red dot to his left.

He swung the rifle around and shot an elite in the chest, dropping its shield, with one bolt hitting actual armour, before the rifle ran out of charge. He swung the plasma-heated baton and smashed the now searing face of the elite before cutting off its ability to breath. Douglas jumped into cover; his own shielding has been hit by a couple of stray plasma rounds. He chucked the rifle away, landing somewhere in the purple and orange wasteland. "Grenade out." Douglas shouted, tossing a pilfered Type-1 plasma grenade into the cover of the Covenant chucking it high enough for it to burn out its three-second timer as it hit the ground. "Jerome, how far are we from the spire?"

The grenade exploded and Jerome jumped over his cover. "We are about two hundred meters."

"Good to he…" Douglas stepped back as he came to face with a blue highlighted chrome knight, who teleported mere inches from the Spartans face. "Hello ugly."

"The 'ell is that?" Jerome said.

The knight took a swing. "Don't know, what ever it is, it isn't friendly." He said jumping back, firing a round into the chest chassis of the robot, causing it to shower into a storm of glowing orange embers. He replaced his shotgun with a battle rifle as Jerome made it to his side.

"How much ammo you got?"

"Two spare magazines for Battle Rifle, with twelve in the current, as for the shotgun three in the chamber, eight in the pocket, pistol unused. You?"

"One Battle Rifle mag, eighteen loaded, two Assault Rifle, twenty three loaded, three Pistol, three loaded."

"What time we on?"

"Ten minuets."

"We have done more with less, lets get a move on." The two Spartans slid down the steep embankment and into a metallic dog, crushing it under the heavy Mjolnir armour. The two of them ran into the cover of a walled area with a building in the middle, the building let out a small hum and red glow as the two Spartans approached. "That looks important."

"Very. Destroying that may shut down the tower either by taking away its power source or by exploding and killing both of us."

"Lets hope it is the former." The Spartan rammed his fist through the red orb, the lights in the area dimmed. "Well, I think that was a good sign."

"I saw two more of these buildings, you take the left, and I'll get the right." The two Spartans moved around the central building, their weapons ready as they each stormed their respective buildings. Jerome grabbed a plasma grenade and dodged around to the side and tossed it into the building, the fused burned and exploded suddenly. He scanned the inside of the room and saw a knight stumbling back, the orb gone from the explosion. His assault rifle fired into the heart of the machine, causing it to disintegrate. He pick up what looked like a shotgun, a small smile grew on his face, he picked up its shell equivalent and pocketed the small cells in his TAC-hard-case. He heard the ruckus caused by his fellow Spartan on the other side of the complex.

Douglas shot a number of heavy-duty shells into the heart of a Knight, causing a shower or embers to fall to the ground. He reloaded his shotgun, three left. He punched his second power source. It gave off sparks and the humming slowed down to a halt. "The spire is still active Jerome."

"Lets get to the top of the spire. Maybe that was just some sort of shield generation device." He glanced at his timer. Eight minuets thirty five seconds. "Now." The two of them converged together at the base of the forerunner building, a number of the strange canine and humanoid robots walking around the corridors and landings. Douglas took the front, his shotgun ready. A knight swung its blade down on the Spartan who narrowly dodged it. He brought his gun to its chest and fired a shell straight into its core before beating down one of the crawlers. He dove out of cover and came face to face with another knight who had been late to react as a heavy slug broke through its front armour, killing it. He turned around and shot another crawlers in, what Douglas thought was, its face. The other Spartan unloaded half a clip into a knight before punching its armour, killing it. They proceeded up to another level; Douglas fired his final shell into a crawler, completely decimating it into its component parts.

"I'm out."

"Take this." Jerome tossed Douglas the scattergun.

Douglas disposed of his shotgun by throwing the large weapon into the hands of an unsuspecting knight, and shooting his new hard light weapon at close range into its head. Jerome then passed his TAC hard case filled with ammunition for the alien weapon, Douglas threw his own back at Jerome and they both attached them to the magnetic holsters on their left leg. "We have six minuets. Move your hide." The two of them advanced up the stairwell towards a glowing walk way. Douglas changed his weapon to his Assault Rifle and sprayed and ran towards the room at the end. Jerome killing off everything that was damaged by his subordinate until they reached an elevator.

Douglas quickly pressed the green button and the platform moved up towards the top of the spire. The two Spartans reloaded their weapons. They got down into a ready position, weapons up as the elevator reached the top lip. The elevator smoothly stopped, the Spartans scanned the area before running to what looked like the spires core. Douglas grabbed the handle of the core input device. He pulled back, surprised how heavy it felt, even with his new armour. "HEAVE." He said as the core finally let out a click and the spire died down, a couple of seconds later, John and Alice's spire beam shut down and a portal opened behind the two male Spartans. They glanced at one another and jumped into the swirling rip in space-time.

They had five minuets and thirty seconds to warn the _Infinity_.

* * *

Carter was looking over the bridge of the _Spirit of Fire_; his bones still ached from the years in stasis. _Twenty-six and a half years. That is a long time to be under ice, I am probably the oldest captain in the fleet. That must annoy Terrance, stealing his reputation as the second in command of the geriatric corps._ He smiled to himself, from what they head learned from Cortana, _Lord_ Terrance Hood was now an admiral of the fleet, only being out done by the chief of the Office of Naval Intelligence, Rear Admiral Margaret Prarangosky. _Can't say I look bad for seventy-eight._

"Sir."

"Lieutenant Dawson?"

"We have an incoming broadcast, on the E-Band, looks human and it doesn't match the Dawn's"

"Put it on the speaker."

"Yes sir."

The speakers crackled and came alive, producing static, but underneath the initial layer of white noise was a pattern that resembled human speech. "Serina can you clear it up?"

"I'll try."

The speakers replayed the message; an image came up on the Captains screen. "There's video?" He looked at the screen and saw what looked like a captain on the bridge of a large vessel. His uniform was different to his own, but looked still UNSC. "Play it."

The picture began to move. "_UNSC Forward Unto Dawn, this is Captain Andrew Del Rio of the UNSC Infinity, we are two minuets from the entrance of Requiem, do you copy? Roland, ETA?"_

"_Five minuets thirty seconds, sir."_

"_Hear that, we will be with you soon. Five thirty."_

"Serina, can you get a message back?"

"I can try, I'll do audio only, and it keeps the diffraction down and increase the chances of getting heard."

"Do it." A green light lit up on the side of the screen.

"All good to go sir."

"This is Captain James Cutter, UNSC Spirit of Fire, we are strongly advising you to stay way from the area above entrance, it is a gravity well, and I doubt your ship will be able to escape. I repeat, Do Not Enter The Entrance Area." He pressed the light at the top of the screen. "Serina, replay that message until we get a response. Put all we have into getting that message to this Captain Del Rio.

"Aye, Aye Sir." Serina said.

* * *

The Spartans landed in a large circular band that surrounded the satellite. "Lets all take the right side, I think that we want to get to that terminal over there." Cortana said.

"How long do we have?"

"Five minuets."

"Good, move out team." John finished, the team of Spartans moved to the left. The mix of orange light from the forerunner constructs mixing up with the green, purples and blues of covenant fire. The four of them made haste, letting their two obstacles take one another out as they advanced forward and around the large ring. They ran from cover to cover. John grabbed an M9 frag grenade and threw it above the metal barrier. It bounced once and detonated at the feet of a struggling knight and elite. It hurled the two of them back with concussive force. Alice swung out of cover and fired the assault rifle in the still operating knight. Douglas walked slowly forwards down the centre, firing his scattergun into a pair of grunts. Jerome moved on the right flank, firing the remnants of his penultimate battle rifle magazine into the heads of crawlers coming further up the ring.

"Four minuets." Cortana announced.


	7. Satillite

C7-Satillite

The four Spartans moved with unparalleled speed and precision as they made their way around the left-hand side of the chamber. An unlucky grunt got a face full of Spartan shoulder as John barged its head into the strut. He then proceeded to pop his head around cover and take a number of potshots at a number of grunts running to the aid of their Elite superiors as they fought off one of the large Forerunner knights. Jerome and Douglas slid over the metal cover they were using their assault rifle and shotgun respectively, firing with extreme prejudice. The latter Spartan tackling the Elite, who had just impaled the Knight in the chest with his energy sword, with his knee, knocking the covenant soldier onto the ground, only to have the Spartan put his shotgun in the creatures face and blow it to smithereens. Jerome, on the other hand, was being a little more conservative, and taking out a number of the do like crawlers with precision strikes to their heads. Alice was holding back, using her assault rifle much like John and taking out the weaker foes. Sure they weren't as powerful, but considering the fact that there were so many, the combined firepower was nothing to scoff at.

They team tactically moved onwards, keeping their momentum up, and making sure both of the Spartans oppositions could not hold back the punch of the Spartans advance. The four of them moved with deadly beauty, firing the high-velocity rounds into metal and flesh alike. Douglas loaded the last of his shotgun's ammunition, four final shells. The chief rocked up to a large metal blast door and activated the button in its lower centre, revealing their way into the next part of the facility. Jerome and Alice had by this point reloaded their assault and battle rifles and were braced for the next stage of the onslaught of covenant and forerunner troops. The door fully folded away and the quartet made their advance into the final section. Cortana announced a reminder to the rest of the team. "Two minutes people, move fast of the Infinity will be in trouble."

She got four pings of acknowledgement from the Spartans, as Douglas charged weapon-first at a pair of unsuspecting Hunters. The Spartan shifted his weight back, using his momentum and the smooth metal floor surface to slide under the swinging shield of the behemoth aliens. He jutted out his hand, causing him to rapidly slow while pulling the Hunter down onto the ground. With the little momentum he had left, he dug his heels into one of the aesthetic joints of the floor causing his body to crumple up slightly, giving him some upwards momentum, allowing him to get back onto his two feet. He quickly whipped his shotgun around and planted it squarely against the main worm joint of the Hunter, causing it to shatter under the weapons force. _Three_. He pumped the gun quickly and fired another into the already mangled joint. _Two._ The second Hunter charged and swung at the Spartan in a blood rage at the Spartan for killing its Bond Brother. The Spartan jumped to the side and jammed the muzzle into one of the exposed joints, right in between two of the squirming worms, and fired. _One._ The Hunter collapsed to the floor for a second, which more than enough time for a Spartan, it exposing its back completely to Douglas, who placed his shotgun into its back and permanently severed its upper and lower halves. _Zero._ The Spartan finished off by tossing his shotgun into the unsuspecting face of a Grunt, before pulling out a pistol.

Jerome fired his assault rifle into the heart of an Elite, dropping its shields. Glancing at his motion sensor he quickly grabbed the Elite and threw him over his shoulder, making the alien the brunt of a Storm Rifle's coolant cycle, before the Spartan turned back around and fired the remnants of his rifle's magazine into the Elite Minor, dropping its shields to zero. The Spartan dropped the rifle, its sling letting it hand in the air before he whipped out his pistol, popping a bullet through the Elites head. Out the corner of his eye he saw a plasma grenade come towards him, so with Speed that could only be seen done by a Spartan, Jerome took a hold of the recently deceased, and put it between him and the grenade, before kicking the body back towards the offending Jackal, who was quickly consumed by blue fire. A group of Jackals had kept back, not shooting as they might have caused friendly fire, began raining plasma down on the now alone Spartan. Raising his pistol and using its zoom feature he took a few pot shots at the Jackals before getting some help from Alice.

Alice had, by his point dispatched a number of Grunt squads by firing at their unprotected plasma grenade that had been lazily attached to magnetic holsters on the sides of their bodies. Each grenade explosion created a small chain reaction between each of the members of the squads, causing them to go up in a blue, plasma, Chinese firecracker like reaction, gaining Alice much praise from the Spartan Fireteam's resident Artificial Intelligence. There was movement as a number of the shield world's dog like security AI began to move down towards her team, quickly dispatching them with a number of headshots, she released the now empty battle rifle ammunition, the empty case bouncing off the floor, the Spartan quickly and efficiently inserting a new one into like she had done for years, and quickly rescanned the area. She noticed a number of Jackals aiming at Jerome, she quickly snapped the rifle towards the enemy marksmen positions and fired a quick succession of shots, messily removing the Covenant troops from the fighting force, Jerome gave quick thanks over the coms, before getting back to work.

John meanwhile was busy with a pair of Knights. A large orange hard-light blade proceeded to fall to the right of the Spartan. Grabbing the Knight spear by the shaft, he ripped it away from its body by giving it a semi double-footed drop kick against the chest and wrenching it away. The blade immediately stopped functioning once it was removed from the robots hands, but that didn't stop the chief from smashing it hard against its metal helmet, causing it to cave in slightly, the AI giving an inhuman wail as John did so. The chief quickly spun around, not forgetting about the second knight behind him, who was in the process of attempting to skull split the chief. Using the metal shaft of the previous knight's blade, he deflected the incoming attack and swatted the knight to the side. Removing a previously pilfered Forerunner pistol, he overcharged it and released the mini shotgun into the head, causing it to disappear into a shower of golden-orange ember like fragments. The chief didn't waste any time admiring his handiwork and unloaded the dregs of the pistols energy cell into the skull of the knight, disappearing in a similar way as its ally. They were so close to their goal, it was just around the bend, but what they found was less than inviting.

A final guard of seven Knights, all of who had their drone support deployed. "We have a minute left people." Cortana worryingly reminded them, a slight frizzle of static bordering the heads-up display of Johns visor. The team quickly checked and double-checked their weapons, making sure their ammunition was full before advancing. Alice and John hung back slightly, firing off their battle rifles at the floating Watchers who were already providing shielding to the Knights. Jerome and Douglas dove straight in. Jerome ran straight at one of the Hard light shielded knights and jumped feet first towards it. The Knight tilted its shield up, but that was exactly what the Spartan expect it to do. Propelling himself upwards, he drove the assault rifle's muzzle into close range of a Watcher, guaranteeing zero wasted shots due to bullet spread. The Watcher was quickly eliminated, almost as quickly as the Knight it was protecting as Douglas unleashed an unrelenting torrent of bullets into its chest. The two Knights to the Spartans' left and right attempted to attack the two human super soldiers. Ducking down, Jerome let the orange blade rip into the chassis of the unsuspecting Knight. With a grunt, Jerome quickly elbowed the damaged Knight in the chest denting the silver metal body of the hard light blade cutting through more metal as the knight stumbled back. Jerome quickly placed his pistol against the head of the constructed and fired off half a magazine. The AI fell to its knees, dissolving into embers as it did so. Douglas, on the other hand, was going toe to toe with the other Knight, putting his foot square into its chest and kicking it into its allies.

Alice and John had by this point promptly dispatched the rest of the Watchers and were advancing; the Chief had picked up Forerunner assault rifle that Cortana had dubbed a 'suppressor'. The suppressor gave a slightly worrying bullet spread until Cortana 'politely' informed him that it was designed to clear droves of Flood. The Chief and Alice ran into battle, suppressors firing off golden shards of energy into their enemies, dropping their shields and ripping through them like tissue paper without their protective Watchers… _watching..?_ over them.

The seven were stripped down to four by Douglas and Jerome, and the four stripped down to zero by Alice and John, but they didn't stop. Since John was the one with the AI inbuilt into his suit, he was the one to interface in case he needed assistance. As before even the final bullet casing hit the floor, John had his gauntlets resting on the two hand placements. The odd shielded spheres energy turning and contorting in odd four-dimensional patterns that only Cortana could comprehend fully. "Spartan-117 to UNSC Spirit of Fire, attempt contact with the UNSC Infinity on the E-Band, the signal should be clearing. I say again, Attempt contact with the UNSC Infinity on the E-Band, the signal should be clearing." He said, the sphere contorting his voice as he spoke.

"Something doesn't seem right," Alice stated, noticing the Covenant and AI troops had stopped their fighting to stare at the sphere at the centre of the planet. As soon a John said that he moved his hands away from the console and exchanged his suppressor for his battle rifle. Suddenly a wave of orange energy, similar to the one that scanned the Dawn and the Spirit, hit the four soldiers. The four of them raised their weapons at the sphere, taking slow steps backwards before a wave of energy knocked them to the floor. A matt black sphere with a number odd glowing orange engravings upon its surface was revealed to be under the now dissipated energy shield. The sphere began to peel and fold away and a platform began to descend. There was a body down one knee beginning to stand up on its two legs.

"Is that what I think it is?" Cortana said.

"Care to share?" The Chief asked, half knowing already.

She didn't give her reply as the humanoid creature steadied its legs and spread its arms wide and began to talk. "So fades the great harvest of my betrayal." The Spartans moved back up onto their feet.

"We need an exit ASAP Cortana," Jerome said quickly, noticing the entire Covenant force now on their knees. She set a way marker to the edge, the four Spartans running down and sliding onto the lower level. "A portal would be great right now!" He said, less than calmly, as pieces of armour began to construct itself around the towering figure.

Johns HUD was getting progressively more frizzled with purple static as the AI attempted to get an exit for them. "Humans." The commanding figure called out. "You truly don't know with whom you are dealing with, what great power you have unearthed upon yourself. At least those around you, these creatures and creations of both herself and I understand better than you." It said, as a wave of orange light replaced blue, as the Forerunner constructs were forcibly switched sides. "Time was your race's ally, now it is against you. You will make great additions to my collection."

He said, finally making eye contact with the group. "Cortana!"

"There it's open, move your collective asses out now."

The four of them slid into the portal, and just as quickly fell out, Alice and Jerome landing less than gracefully on their fronts. John looked about, they were back on the second layer, bright sunlight lighting up the artificial world brilliantly. "Where are we?" John asked.

"Given the position of the gravity well, I would say, we are about thirty kilometres south-east from Firebase Hotel."

"Can you get us a sig…"

"Wait I'm picking something up on the E-Band." Cortana said as the other Spartans got back to their feet.

"Play it," John ordered. There was slight static at the beginning.

"_Mayday! Mayday! This is the Captain of the UNSC Infinity, we're encountering an… known gravimetric disturbance. We are without power and are on a collision course with an unidentified forerunner planet!"_

"That can't be good," Jerome commented as a large boom, of a ship breaking the sound barrier after entering the atmosphere. The three others turned around to see what the Spartan was looking at, only to see a large five and a half-kilometre ship enter the large hole in the sky. "Cortana, track it's decent."

"Copy, just shy of eighty kilometres to the north." She said while tracking a large black sphere move across the horizon. "It seems we'll not be only ones making our way there too."

There was a thunderous roar behind them as a pelican dropship moved up behind the quartet. "Echo 419, at your service." Said a drawly accent over the Com, as the vehicle rotated around, presenting the cargo hold, the four Spartans stepped on board. "Thank you for choosing UNSCAF Air Ways, please fasten your seat belts and enjoy the flight. What is your destination?"

"Infinity."

**Don't ask how, but I managed to write this in three days, someone wanted a new chapter bad enough to PM me. Don't expect this to be coming out often, though; after all, I have shit to do too, like College, Army and other FanFiction commitments (not to forget drinking commitments too).**


	8. Reunited

**A Sub Platoon in the UNSC is an unofficially official unit formed during the Human-Covenant war. According to the Army Rumour Service, the UNSCDF servicemen's forum, the Sub Platoon is, according to some ODST's is 'like a section grew a tumour', in reference to the Spartans often attributed to its creation. This refers to the fact that this unit type 'came into being' due to the use of the Spartan programme and the decimation caused by Covenant ground forces. It consists of a regular group of UNSC ground personnel (Marines, Soldiers, Gibbons (Air Force Regiment), NAVSPECWEP) in the form of a section, called Section Bravo, and a group of Special Forces (Spartans. ODSTs, Special Air Regiment, Special Boat Regimen, Marine Insertion Corps or Army Rangers), called Fireteam Alpha. So in total there are three fireteams, two Regulars (Charlie and Delta) and one Special Forces (Alpha). With the increased numbers of people enlisting, and the creation of the Apache and Spartan III and IV programmes, these became more and more common occurrence, leading to assumed protocol, built around old orders. It was only after the Great War that an official methodology was created, with more and more Special Forces integrating with regular forces and Intelligence operations (see operation Distant Thunder).**

**\- UEG-DPKO-489-221 (Structure of the UNSCDF), Section 14, Sub Section 7, Paragraph 1**

**C8: Reunited**

The four… well five if you counted Cortana… were sitting in the back of the pelican, looking over the small armoury that the RQMS had allowed them to play with, allowing to stock up on ammunition and equipment, along with a small marine contingent. "So how's this operation going down?"

Cortana brought up a green holographic display of current heat signatures and RADAR/LIDAR scans, as well as live broadcasting IFF tags that the modified High Altitude Infra-Red System drones that were able to pick up as it flew over the combat area near the roof of the Shield World's second layer. "Well this is the current telemetry given off by our HAIRS drones. As you can see, the drone has located some friendly troops that seem to be venturing out to the Infinity, clearly attempting to set up a perimeter. There were a number of glitches, common among the covenant cloaking technologies, we believe these to be either Covenant troops or some more of the Forerunner AI." She paused as hand went up. "Yes Private Francis."

The marine piqued up. "Ma'am… Forerunner AI, I thought they were friendly, they never hurt us when we were on the last one." He said, a murmur of agreement went up with a number a Marines reflected his opinion.

"That was true an hour ago… But things change, the battlefield is always changing, you all should know this. There is probably a good reason for it, I imagine you lot fighting and being exposed the flood maybe makes you a possible threat to the system, and thus as a safety measure, counts all Humans as a possible outbreak source. Think of the AI as an immune system having an allergic reaction, its just overreacting to something harmless." She lied, not like they'd be able to tell the difference.

"Thank you ma'am." He responded. The others seemed to be satisfied with the answer.

"As I was saying, we aim to flank their positions allowing the friendlies some breakthrough and advance to more defensible positions, we then make our way to the Infinity itself and make physical contact with their crew and explain the situation. Copy?"

"Yes ma'am." They all said. The lights in the hatch went red, instructing marine section and Red Team, Fireteam Alpha, to stand up.

"Marines, Hoorah?" The Section IC shouted.

"Hoorah!"

"Damn right, all units ready sir."

"Thank you Corporal." John couldn't supress his smile to the optimism of the Marines. "Is the 2IC good to go?"

"Yes sir." The lance corporal chimed, the doors to the main hatch opened. "All units of Delta Fireteam are good to go."

"Good. Follow on my order." John turned to his team. "Sierra Alpha, move out."

The four of them dropped onto the forest floor, their feet sinking into the moss slightly, softening the ten-meter drop. The pelican continued to lower. "All scans indicated that the area is clear." Cortana called over the radio.

"Copy that." He changed channel. "All units deploy." The pelican now was a meter off the floor and the rest of the marines began piling out. The teams split into Charlie and Delta fireteams, with each of the corporals in charge. "We'll take the centre, Charlie take the left flank, Delta the right. Cortana will mark the positions for your troops to set up. Copy?"

"Done." A number of blue and orange waypoints lit up their path, as well as the locations of friendlies. Shouldering his battle rifle, the Chief made his way to a small ditch before.

"Okay, this is the Chief talking, the plan of attack is that we, as in Sierra Alpha, act as the spearhead, and yours is to make sure no one tries to be all sneaky and slows us down. You are also here to take the enemies we face by surprise, when we attack, they'll be distracted, you are to surround and clean up. Those are you sub-objectives, our main objective is to get to and help defend the Infinity. Copy."

"Yes, sir!" Came the response.

"Okay, ladies, lets get the show on the road."

The Spartans hopped over the ditch and began their tab through the forest, their weapons shouldered and ready for an attack. It was slow going for the Spartans, who were used to running into the heat of battle, but they had their orders from Cutter, work with the Marines to keep morale up and break through the enemy lines. The four of them were trying to remember the last time they had to do a loaded march. They never did it during the war, as they were seen as to important to put on patrol, most of the time they would be dropped in by a Pelican or drop pod, running or driving into the heat of battle, with the few exceptions when they'd be sneaking behind enemy lines, but that was more of a solo affair with different rules and modes of operation. This was their first tab in about…"

"Forty bloody years." Douglas suddenly said.

"Forty years since what?" Alice asked. Turning around and scanning the rear of the group.

"Since I last tabbed. Or any of us tabbed to be honest."

"And why are you counting? Tabbing isn't the best use of our skills."

"Come on Alice, tabbing is fun! Remember that one time we did that night ex…"

"We have done hundreds of night ex's, like one every week, when we where younger."

"You know the one I mean, when we were ten, and we had to tab twenty miles with only our fatigues, webbing, some Nav equipment and a torch. We climbed mountains and avoided armed patrols with thermal and II sights. That was good fun, hiking through the snow, hitting the deck as patrols past. We were the only team to get through to the end…"

The Chief coughed.

"One of the only teams to get though to the end. I think it was only us and Blue team who got through." He corrected.

"Green got through too. You know Kurt and his 'gut feelings', I'm nearly a hundred per cent sure he bribed or threatened the support staff into telling him patrol paths and troop locations." Jerome muttered.

"We all know that Intelligence is one of the five pillars of a successful battle plan. Along with Prediction, Planning, Morale and Execution." Alice said matter-of-factly.

"Thanks for the information Déjà… We left the MTWP years ago, I don't intend to let your lectures to drag me back into those god forsaken classroom."

"Why do you hate learning so much Douglas?" She said in feigned disappointment. "It helps make a better you."

"I feel so sorry for you Jerome, you have had to deal with these two for the past three decades… You've got to tell me what antidepressants you take." John tuned in.

"Tell me about it John, I hardly imagine Fred and Kelly would give you this much grief." Jerome sighed

"You'd be surprised, Kelly sometimes can hardly sit still. You know what she's like…"

"I'd like to see her on combat stims."

"Don't even joke about that." John warned, getting a hearty laugh out of Jerome.

Before Jerome could respond, there was a call from Lance Corporal Cameron, the IC of Delta team. "Sierra Delta to Sierra Alpha. Do you copy? Over."

"This is Sierra Alpha, what is going on? Over."

"We are picking up friendly IFF tags from our right, permission to check it out? Over."

"Copy Sierra Delta. Hold position, we will swing around. Over."

"Wilco Sierra Alpha, holding position. Over."

"Copy Sierra Delta. Out." John changed channel to speak with Corporal Dunn, the IC of Charlie. "Sierra Alpha to Sierra Charlie, do you copy? Over."

"This is Sierra Charlie, Rodger. Over."

"Sierra Charlie, swing around to our front left and help box in the possible friendlies. Over."

"Wilco Sierra Alpha, swinging around to your front left. Over."

"Copy Sierra Charlie. Out."

John held up a closed fist. Halting the group, readying their weapon a little more. He pointed to their right before out stretching his arms at an angle, telling them to move out in a left echelon pattern, finally redoing the pointing action, telling them to move towards Delta team. They began to walk, Cortana displaying relevant HAIRS data on their HUD's as well as the orange pips of Delta team. Their motion sensor picked up the yellow dots of Charlie team moving to their right in a column. To their front, Delta began to come into motion sensor range, as well as a small Forerunner installation. John moved an outstretched, flat-handed arm down, telling everyone to get low.

"Sierra Delta to Sierra Alpha. What are we waiting for? Over."

"This is Sierra Alpha. The IR imagery from the HAIRS drones doesn't match up. All units, aim into the hollow in front of the Forerunner bunker. Fire on my order. Do you Copy? Over."

"Sierra Delta, Affirmative. Over."

"Sierra Charlie, Affirmative. Over."

"Sierra Alpha to all Sierra Sub-platoon. Sierra Alpha through Delta, Fire at will." John said only to hear an orchestra of rifle fire, as the entirety of Sierra Sub-platoon fired into the courtyard. About five seconds passed. "Hold fire." The music finally stopped only for a pile of metal bodies left in its wake. "Hollow is has been cleared. Charlie and Delta teams, you are to hold position and keep us covered. Over."

"Sierra Charlie, Affirmative. Over."

"Sierra Delta, Affirmative. Over."

"Sierra Alpha Acknowledges. Out."

The four of them slid down the side of the embankment and into the hollow and John put on a local E-Band frequency. "UNSC troops outside. Do not shoot, I say again, Do Not Shoot. Over."

"Callsign? Over." A man called over the radio.

"Sierra 117, Sierra 130, Sierra-042 and Sierra-092. May I ask who this is? Over." John said, the doors opening slowly.

"Commander Thomas Lasky." He responded. "UNSC Infinity's first officer." The metal door opened up, revealing a number of marines, surrounding the group. The officer walked out. "Holy hell. It's really you… Fancy seeing you here of all places."

"Good to see you again. Sir. I'll just get my marines down." He changed the channel as the Commander alerted his troops. "Sierra Alpha to the rest of Section Bravo. Over."

"Section Bravo, regroup. Over."

"Both fireteams of Sierra Section Bravo inbound. Out."

John turned to the officer. "Section Bravo inbound. Sir."

Offering his hand, the Commander smiled at the giant. "You don't have to call me, unless the situation demands it. I owe you too much otherwise."

"Humans are creatures of habit. Sir."

"Aren't we just?" He said as section of human marines tactically withdrew from their locations "Wait, are those MA2's? Those are obsolete? Like thirty years obsolete."

Three of the red painted Spartans looked at each other, before John spoke. "Sir, that's because these guys have just thawed from thirty years of Cryo. This is red team of the UNSC Spirit of Fire."

"Well I'll be damned." Came a new voice. "And here I was thinking you'd be taller."


End file.
